Payton is Now a Teen

Payton's birthday was on Sunday, she turned thirteen! She ended out opting to not have a party, but just a sleepover with her best friend Bailey and a new friend from Junior High the Friday before.  I took just a few pictures early that evening. She had to wait until Saturday night to open her gifts.

Payton picked out her cake from online.

Picture of Payton in the last few hours being twelve years old.

 Bailey, acting like her usual crazy self. I'm sure she loves this photo.

 Saturday evening. Payton opened cards from family...

Austin looks less than thrilled. Gregg, however, looks pumped.  I don't know what that's about.

 This is a birthday card from the cat.

After opening those gifts, we told her to go check the mail because there should be another package on the way and it may just have gotten delivered today.  So she did.

And we waited.

 And she came back with a brown paper bag?

With another brown paper bag inside.  And inside that bag, "Fat Stacks of Cash".  We got her all $1 bills trying to make it look like a lot more money, then wrapped it all up in a wadded up paper bag and then inside another paper bag to make it look like possible drug money.  We were quite surprised that she didn't open it before getting back to the house.

That Sunday we took her to all the stores she wished to have a shopping spree with her fat stacks of cash.  She got loads of good stuff and really had a good time.

"You got me cash?"  "What are you, my uncle or something?"

~Elaine (from Seinfeld)

South Dakota: Part 7 - Custer State Park

Back to the South Dakota photos. I got sidetracked somehow and nearly forgot I still had more to post.  We made our way through Custer State Park on our way to the Mammoth site our last day in the area and saw lots of wildlife.

 The donkey were quite friendly. They would make their way to your car to beg for food.

 We didn't have any, but the kids enjoyed the close up anyway. 

 This big buffalo was at the exit of the park rolling around in the dirt.

I'm not sure that the kids had ever seen groundhogs before, and I'm not sure they could see them from the vehicle, but I got a pretty good picture anyway.

Jolly Sailor

This evening Payton was practicing her violin and it was sounding so good! She has a new instructor and he has really pushed her along. The first video is of her trying to "not play the wrong notes", and the second video is where I told her to play as fast as she can. I think she is thinking too much while playing. 

Bento for Gregg

I made Gregg a bento box to take with him to work today. I puchased this box for myself last semester, but only took it a handfull of times, seems as though I don't care to make time to eat between classes so much, I feel too rushed.  I still love the idea and I would take it if some nice person made me one each day. I purchased it at Whole Foods (aka Whole Paycheck by Gregg).

And yes, I know I have water spots.  We have hard water like I've never seen and I've given up trying to get them off anything aside from glass. Not worth my time.

 Closed. Ready for transport.

Here it is opened up but with the individual lids still on. I don't know what happened to this photo, it's all screwed up and I'm too lazy to get the box and my camera out again for just this one photo.

 Open with the individual lids off. Who wouldn't want this at work?

Over to the right is a napkin with the utensils that came with the box.

And here's everything labeled. I hope it suits his liking. A few of these items I wouldn't have chosen. Namely the apple slices or the ranch, I'd rather have some grapes and chocolate. But this is the type of thing I just love: a whole bunch of different things to choose from with differing textures and tastes. I'm getting hungry just looking at it.

The Locker

So today was Payton's first day of Junior High. She was incredibly excited and I was lucky enough to get a few photos to share...

I dropped Payton and Bailey off at the pedestrian bridge over Papillion's main thoroughfare. I had expected traffic to be much worse than it actually was.

This is Payton taking photos of me as I take them of her. She's such a ham.

Up and over...
It was a half day of school and I had to be back in 3 hours to pick them back up again.

I couldn't believe how big some of these girls were. I don't remember Junior High students being so... developed.  Glad I didn't attend Junior High with some of these girls.

This is how hectic it was after school today. I waited in the car for a good ten minutes before getting out of the car and going to look for them.
I was specific when I dropped the girls off this morning. Telling them:
1. When class is over, turn on your cell phone and check for messages.
2. I planned on picking them up where I had dropped them off, but that could change based on traffic.
3. Meet up with each other BEFORE coming out of the school.
4. Don't leave school grounds without meeting up or contacting me.
5. TURN ON YOUR CELL PHONE BEFORE LEAVING THE SCHOOL.
... I think I repeated that one at least 3 times.

Luckily while I waited I got to have some nice conversation with the principal. He was pleasant, much more friendly than her previous principals.  Neither of the two girls were anywhere to be found for at least another 10 minutes. Soon I became mildly frantic.
Once I found Bailey, I went looking for Payton. We split up, she "guarded" the main exit, and I went looking for my kid that can't follow simple directions when things get hectic.
Soon I was calling her cell phone repeatedly and she eventually called me back stating that she was "at my car" and, "where are you?"  Hopefully this is out of their systems now and things go much more smoothly tomorrow.
Upon finding the nerds and herding them up into my car, we headed to get Austin. His school, as I mentioned earlier is back in our neighborhood and the traffic picking him up is always really bad. Because Gregg was home asleep, and the pick up times were so close, I ended up taking my car, parking and walking up in the nasty weather to get him.
He had very little to say about his day. I asked him if he had any friends in his class and he proceeded to tell me about a kid that, "doesn't talk much and wears weird clothes and therefore (Austin) didn't like him."  Austin should be the last kid to be judgemental about others. I mean, he's a dwarf with autism and according to some local kids he, "has the body of a three year old and the face of a forty year old." 

He doesn't understand that other people have feelings, since he is so unemotional and disconnected due to the Asperger's Syndrome.  I was quite put off by this conversation and told him he should be nice to that boy, maybe he issues too. Often it's quite hard to relate to the kid.

Next we went back up to the Junior High to set up the girls lockers and go through their schedules a couple times to ease the pressure.

Luckily I got to explain (to my otherwise intelligent daughter) that the room numbers went in sequential order and that she could easily find the classes she was looking for by using those a guide rather than just walking up and down halls trying to remember where a specific teachers class was by name alone.  Yes.  I'm serious.

Lockers are a big deal in case you didn't know.  When we went over the Summer to tour the school, I pointed out a dead end where I said, "it'd suck to have a locker here"

Guess where Payton's locker is? You guessed it, the very dead end I pointed out. Figures.

Anyway, she had a good time putting up photos in her locker and decorating.  I don't remember lockers being such a big deal.

Payton opened up the locker next to hers. Guess the spy doesn't fall far from the satelite?
Not sure if that makes sense. If not, you're not in the know.

Actually, this boy asked Payton for help with opening his locker multiple times on the first day of school and she happened to remember his combination. 

She left him a note inside from "Katy Perry" before we left. I thought that was funny.

Austin was not amused. He was ticked off that his new school lunch time (which the school let out before since it was a half day) had come and gone. This eventually led to crying less than 20 minutes later.

The kid is 11.
He seems to think I run by the schools schedule. He is sorely mistaken.

That. Will. Never. Happen.

We had a little fun touring the school. The brain had teeth and talked if you set off its motion detector. I bet Payton would love one of these shirts. She's such a science nerd.

But then it was time to go.  They are such good girls. I'm so glad Payton has found such a great friend in Bailey. I wish we could package her up and take her with us.

Payton & Bailey: two wacky peas in a compltely deranged pod.

First Day of School 2011

Today is the first day of school here in Papillion, Nebraska. I took some quick pictures of the kids as we rushed out the door and thought I'd post them along with a couple pictures of the house from earlier last week.

It's hard to believe we've only been here for a year and a half.  We're half way through this tour with only one more remaining. 

Unfortunately Winter is right around the corner and the beautiful blue Nebraska sky will be replaced with coldness and blistering wind.  I'm less than thrilled.

Here are the kids together waiting for us to leave. Payton started Junior High today, which is about 4 miles away and I'm the drop off parent, so I pick up Payton's friend Bailey and drop them off and her mother picks them up each day. I think it's going to work out smashing.

Austin still goes to our neighborhood elementary school, which is a whole 13 houses away. But I have to drop him off and pick him up in person each day so that he doesn't hound other kids for things or raid our neighbors garages.

I know I'm biased, but I think Payton is quite the pretty girl.

Austin looks less than thrilled about being up this early. He is starting 5th grade this year and has the same teacher Payton did. Since Summer break started our wake up time has slowly crept to the 10 o'clock hour, so 7 AM will take a little adjustment.

Here's to a great school year!

South Dakota: Part 6 - The 1880's Train

Wednesday morning we got up early and headed down to the 1880's train for a little trip. It wasn't as interesting as we had expected, and the benches were not comfortable enough for a 3 hour ride. It did give us a good feel of what travel would have been like so many years ago.  Slow, dirty, hot, uncomfortable -  those are the best words to describe this experience.

I look happy here, don't I? I'm not big on heat.

I wonder what Bailey was thinking about when I took this picture? I bet she was wishing I'd just put the damn camera down.

The 1880's were boring. The girls mad their own fun.

And I tried to squish Payton's head.

Here we got to get off the train and stand in line to board again after visiting the restrooms. It was hot on our trip and this part was even less fun than the train ride.

When we re-boarded, we got towards the front of the train where there were more comfortable seats. Luckily the ride back went quite a bit faster. Though we had to listen to the same announcements again on the way back as the first ride.

Gregg got this cool photo out the window where you can see the silhouette of the train. I thought it looked pretty cool.